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The Grapes of Wrath

CRITIQUE | THE TEXT | AT THE MOVIES

The Grapes of Wrath first editionFirst edition
Publication details ▽ Publication details △

First publication
1939

Literature form
Novel

Genre
Literary

Writing language
English

Author's country
United States

Length
Approx. 176,000 words

Notable lines

First lines

To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently and they did not cut the scarred earth. The plows crossed and recrossed the rivulet marks. The last rains lifted the corn quickly, and scattered weed colonies and grass along the sides of the roads so that the gray country and the dark red country began to disappear under a green cover.

Passages

"Prayer never brought in no side-meat. Takes a shoat to bring in pork."

"The hell with it! There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing. And some of the things folks do is nice, and some ain't nice, but that's as far as any man got a right to say."

Tom grinned. "It don’t take no nerve to do somepin when there ain’t nothin’ else you can do."

In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

"I'll be ever'where—wherever you look. Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there....I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an'—I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. An' when our folks eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build—why, I'll be there."

"Why, Tom—us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live. They ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people—we go on."

Last lines

For a minute Rose of Sharon sat still in the whispering barn. Then she hoisted her tired body up and drew the comforter around her. She moved slowly to the corner and stood looking down at the wasted face, into the wide, frightened eyes. Then slowly she lay down beside him. He shook his head slowly from side to side. Rose of Sharon loosened one side of the blanket and bared her breast. "You got to," she said. She squirmed closer and pulled his head close. "There!" she said. "There." Her hand moved behind his head and supported it. Her fingers moved gently in his hair.She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously.

 

CRITIQUE | THE TEXT | AT THE MOVIES